Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial [Hardcover]

Joseph E. Persico (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0670842761 | ISBN-13: 978-0670842766 | Edition: First

Using firsthand documents, the author recounts the trial of Nazi officials at Nuremberg, analyzing the day-to-day struggles among the prosecutors and judges, the evidence of unprecedented atrocities, and the personalities of the accused. 35,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Persico ( Piercing the Reich ) has written an extraordinary, intensely dramatic re-creation of the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1946 in which the U.S., France, the U.S.S.R. and Britain tried and executed Nazi war criminals. His stirring narrative, which attempts to conjure the mental states of the key participants, draws on interviews with prosecutors, interpreters, jailers, journalists and bodyguards; on hitherto untapped personal papers and archival documents; and on prisoners' letters and journals. In addition to conveying the courtroom drama that exposed the Nazis' mass murder of six million Jews and millions of others, Persico unveils behind-the-scenes wrangling. For example, defiantly unrepentant Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring vied with Nazi arms minister Albert Speer, who preached confession and contrition. Meanwhile, the courthouse became a Cold War in microcosm as Soviet and Western judges clashed. Although Nuremberg may have been legally flawed, it was "satisfying justice," concludes Persico, who suggests that the trials contributed to postwar German democracy. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to American History and Military History Quarterly.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Persico offers not the history but the story of the trial of Nazi Germany's major war criminals. He is concerned less with legal issues and courtroom procedures than with a fundamental question: Did it all matter? His answer is mixed. While the tribunal's validity remains debatable, to demand perfection from the institutions of justice is to deny justice itself. Persico demonstrates that Nuremberg was not a kangaroo court; the defendants had their choice of attorneys and full access to the prosecution's documentation. If individual verdicts may be questioned, no saints or statesmen lost life or freedom. The trial demonstrated beyond question Nazi Germany's crimes and destroyed beyond hope any Nazi martyrology. Arguably, it helped lay the grounds for Germany's eventual democratic reconstruction. The Nuremberg proceedings may not have deterred later aggressors, but they at least established a precedent for law that supersedes national sovereignty. This well-written, well-researched volume belongs in all collections on World War II.
D.E. Showalter, U.S. Air Force Acad., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First edition (May 24, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670842761
• ISBN-13: 978-0670842766
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #654,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Law > Specialties > War

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite Well Written Look At Nuremberg Trials!, July 28, 2000

By 

Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nuremberg : Infamy on Trial (Paperback)

Nothing so defines the differences separating the Third Reich from the Allies as the way in which the defendants of the trials at Nuremberg were handled. With painstaking precision and at extraordinary cost in terms of international arm-twisting and back-door deals, the proponents of a judicial proceeding designed to illustrate the manifest individual guilt of the various Nazi officials forged a result that still stands today as a model of a non-retributive effort in the face of extraordinary pressure. In this book author Joseph Persico offers a ground-level introduction to the motley cast of characters on trial as well as the collection of interested others who gathered to oversee the proceedings.

Achieving the result of fair trials that would literally change the perspective of the world toward participants in war was anything but easy, and moving toward that deliberate goal is a theme providing an interesting theme punctuating the pace of the book. Churchill wanted revenge by way of summary trials and quick retribution, while the Russians just wanted to string up the whole group in a mass hanging. Yet American Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson was able to resolve the differences well enough to proceed, although at times the reader wonders if the trials will be anything like the fair-minded judicial event he has in mind. Indeed, the back-stabbing, personal ambitions, and petty jealousies of the various factions, trial officials, and individual defendants becomes a kind of political circus that sometimes resembles nothing so much as vaudevillian showboating.

Still, the efforts at conducting a fair and open forum for the world to watch as the prosecution and defense teams clashed before the international tribunal prevailed, and the trials concluded with mixed results in terms of the results. Most of the defendants were found guilty, and many were hanged. Yet few observers doubted that the defendants had had their day in court along with and adequate opportunity to defend their actions to a watching world. Given how little justice and liberty they collectively allowed for their tens of millions of victims, it is remarkable just how civilized and dignified a proceeding the Nuremberg trials were, with all their theatrics and subterranean undercurrents. One marvels at the fact that after fifty years the world still stands in awe at the deliberate, careful, and methodical way in which the Allies achieved the result of a rational and fair trial of the defendants in history's most horrific modern nightmare, the terror of the Third Reich.

This is an interesting and absorbing book, and a fascinating and entertaining book to read. It was also particularly interesting to me since I had recently viewed the telecast by TNT based on this book which covered the trials, and the book served to fill out a lot of the remaining questions I had regarding the nature of the individual personalities from Truman to Churchill to Jackson to Biddle and the others. This is a worthwhile book, and I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about these singular trials and their impact on history.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good and Interesting Account, January 31, 2000

By 

Justin Gerstein - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nuremberg : Infamy on Trial (Paperback)

This account of the Nuremberg Trials is truely a gift. Presico give a detailed account of the trial and a background to the major players that participated in this historic event. This trial forever changed the outlook of international law and directly outlined the concenquences of future of wars -- if you commit crimes, you will be punished. This book is a prime example of critical, but reader friendly analysis. This book is a good introduction to the Nuremberg Trials that gives you the reader a close, inside view of the men who ran the Nazi war effort.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perscico's might be the best of the Nuremberg books, February 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Nuremberg : Infamy on Trial (Paperback)

I've always been facinated by the Nuremberg trials, and last year I actually took a college course solely on Nuremberg, so I've read many Nremberg historicals in my life. I think that this one might be the best simply because it is written in the most interesting way. Persico takes you through the trial as if it were a novel with twists and climaxes in its plot. He also interjects a fair amount of subjective criticism into the book ( much of which I disagree with ). I would recommend this book even above those written by trial participants such as Taylor's and Tusa's books for readers interested in learning about the shape and scope of the trials. This is especially true for readers new to the Nuremberg trial since this book is more likely than most to keep your attention throughout the book. The only book about Nuremberg that I have read that is better than Persico's is psychologist G.M. Gilbert's "Nuremberg Diary." Although this one is better for readers interested in learning about the trial itself.